Woody Guthrie was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, but he spent the majority of his Dust Bowl years in Pampa, Texas, sixty miles west of the Oklahoma border. While he began playing guitar and harmonica back in Okemah, it was in Pampa that Guthrie began to grow as a musician. It also was in Texas that he experienced the drought and the most powerful dust storm of the Dust Bowl on April 14, 1935—a day that became known as Black Sunday. Restless and with little opportunity to provide for his family in Pampa, Texas, Guthrie began traveling in 1936. He eventually arrived in California like so many other displaced individuals. There he saw firsthand the trials and tribulations of Dust Bowl refugees. The experiences during his travels shaped not only his music in the narrative sense, but also his belief in social justice.